In recent years, there are being popularized systems of broadcasting television signals caused to be in digital form by satellites such as broadcasting satellites or communication satellites, etc. to receive broadcasting signals, e.g., at respective homes to carry out viewing (Viewing/listening) thereof. In such broadcasting systems, it is possible to carry out transmission of channels nearly equal to 150. Thus, very many programs can be broadcasted as compared to broadcasts by ground wave.
In such broadcasting systems, in order to permit user to easily select a desired program from many programs, there has been proposed a program selection system such that the transmitting side such as broadcasting station, etc. transmits Electronic Program Guide (EPG) as information of programs scheduled to be broadcasted, and to receive and display this electronic program guide at the receiving side to allow user to select a desired program or programs by this electronic program guide.
An example of display of a conventional electronic program guide will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B. At genre select picture 1 shown in FIG. 1A, there are displayed plural genres relating to the programs such as "ALL (all genres)" "NEWS", "MOVIE", "SPORTS". User operates, e.g., remote controller, etc. to thereby move cursor (not shown) displayed within the picture, thus making it possible to select a desired genre from the plural genres displayed. When desired genre is selected at the genre select picture 1 shown in FIG. 1A, display is switched into program table picture 2 shown in FIG. 1B in correspondence with the selected genre.
At the program table picture 2 shown in FIG. 1B, channel Nos. of broadcasting stations are displayed in the ordinate direction, and times are displayed in the abscissa direction. Further, at positions prescribed by these two axes, respective titles 3 of programs at preselected times by selected channels are displayed. In this case, length in the lateral direction of each program title 3 corresponds to time of the abscissa, and is dependent upon length of broadcasting time of the program.
In more practical sense, in the case where "ALL" in the genre select picture 1 shown in FIG. 1A is selected, display of picture is switched, on monitor, e.g., television image receiver, from the genre select picture 1 into the program table picture 2 shown in FIG. 1B. At the program table picture provided after undergone switching, program titles of all genres every respective channels are displayed.
In this case, at the program table picture 2 shown in FIG. 1B, only a portion of actual program table 4 shown in FIG. 2 is displayed. In the case where there is a desire or necessity to display program title except for the arias being displayed, it is necessary to move picture display area 5 shown in FIG. 2 in upper and lower directions and in left and right directions by operating predetermined switch buttons at remote controller, etc.
Then, user moves cursor (not shown) to display position of a desired program title from program titles displayed within the program table picture 2 thereafter to carry out operation of determination by using the remote controller, thereby making it possible to conduct viewing (viewing/listening) of the selected program, or to conduct viewing (viewing/listening) of information relating to this program.
As described above, the actual program table 4 as shown in FIG. 2 indicates the program broadcasting schedule of all channels in order of time and thus includes a large quantity of information. For this reason, only a portion of the program table 4 can be displayed on the screen of monitor, etc. Namely, only an extremely few titles of programs can be displayed on the screen of monitor. In this case, if attempt is made to display many titles, characters displayed necessarily become small. As a result, this is difficult for user to see.
Moreover, in order to allow user to select a desired program, it is also necessary to scroll the picture display area 5 shown in FIG. 2 in two directions of upper and lower directions and left and right directions. Such operation by user is very troublesome.
Further, in the case of such electronic program guide, since the genre select picture 1 shown in FIG. 1A and the program table picture 2 shown in FIG. 1B are in the form where they are respectively constituted by independent pictures, e.g., user is faced with, when either one of pictures of FIGS. 1A and 1B is being displayed, inability to see other picture. Accordingly, in order to see other picture, an operation for switching the picture being displayed into the other picture is always required. Also in this respect, user must carry out troublesome operation.
Thus, this invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of this invention is to provide an electronic program guide control apparatus which permits user to easily see picture displayed, which is capable of selecting desired program or information of program more quickly, and which is excellent in operation.